The former director of information technology for the Sumter County School Board has been ordered to write a letter of apology to escape a felony charge in an email hack using a school-issued computer.
David Trick, 61, of Inverness, has been allowed to enter into a pre-trial intervention contract in Sumter County Court which would allow him to avoid prosecution in the case. As part of the agreement, Trick admitted his guilt and agreed to write a letter of apology to the Sumter County School Board. He was also ordered to perform 60 hours of community service, however, he can “buy out” of the service at the rate of $10 per hour.
Trick, who worked for 12 years in the information technology department for the school system, including as IT coordinator since 2016, had been reassigned Dec. 2 from the IT department to the transportation department, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
An audit of the school system’s email system showed that Trick had used his school system-issued laptop on Dec. 17 to download 40 emails from the email server. He did so without permission, the report said. The laptop accessed the system using Trick’s user name and unique password.
Trick was one of many longtime Sumter school employees who backed Richard Allen Shirley Jr.’s bid to succeed his father as school superintendent. Trick donated $250 to Shirley’s campaign. Though Shirley had the family name and raised significantly more campaign money than his opponent, Shirley came up short in the 2024 election. Logan Brown, a teacher at The Villages High School, was successful in his longshot bid for the county’s top education post.
This past week, an inspector general report found that the previous Shirley school administration falsified student data.